So, you’ve recently put your Business Continuity Plan to the test – How did you do?

Business owners appreciate that having a plan and implementing the plan for the unknown future are two entirely different things. Once you’ve got over the initial panic and rush to mobilise then comes the real test.

Do the systems we’re using really help us deliver the same work in the same time for the same or less money?

That’s the real test, and for many companies, business continuity costs them both in the hard cash to implement in a rush, but also in lost productivity.

And to be frank, the IT service and software industry generally isn’t helping; I say this because all too often business continuity is a checkbox somewhere after the buying decision has already been made. To be fair it’s a different specialism, you won’t find expert software developers writing resilience plans but that’s where a commercial and caring approach to winning work can make all the difference. Rarely do service management software experts dig deeper into how a company needs to operate and I’d say turning down a customer if they don’t take the necessary steps to implement a system properly is even rarer.

But this is what the industry needs because let’s face it lots of people will be testing their systems now and finding them wanting. Because true continuity enables seamless communications between all different elements of a business just like your people talk to each other in the office and communication is everything, effective service management systems enable this and most importantly when everyone’s forced to work differently.

So honestly, if you’re in the service industry I’d like to hear how your business continuity and systems planning is working for you? Do you have the same reporting? How’s your KPI’s performance? Are all your systems talking to one another? Is your team happy working remotely?